


For Him

by Person



Category: Baccano!
Genre: Community: fic_promptly, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-13
Updated: 2011-11-13
Packaged: 2017-10-26 01:25:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/277024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Person/pseuds/Person
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eve pressed her mouth into a tight line at the scent of alcohol clinging to her brother, but she didn't say a word.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Him

Eve pressed her mouth into a tight, worried, line at the smell of him when he staggered through the door so late at night that it could almost be morning, but she held her tongue.

Three years before she would have said something, gentle in her chiding always but still making it clear that she thought he was better than that. Even a year before, had he managed to escape the river and make his way back to her before she learned the truth about what had happened to him, she would have at least made sure he knew how much he worried her.

But now, knowing what she did, she couldn't say a word. Just living from one day to the next haunted by the memory of the river, any peace he might have found in his dreams ruined by nightmares that he couldn't seem to escape for even a single night, was enough of a trial for her brother. If there was anything that could dim that pain even a little, how could she speak against it?

So she tucked him into her own bed on the ground floor when it seemed likely that he'd trip and crack open his head if he tried making it up the stairs to his own room; it didn't matter that he'd heal from any injury, she would not see him in further pain. She sat beside him and stroked his hair when the nightmares still came in spite of all the alcohol running through his body. She placed a pot by his bedside in case he couldn't make it to the toilet before his stomach turned on him in the morning.

She supported him in every way she could, letting nothing but that brief tight-lipped frown show that she wished he could find some other way to cope.


End file.
